


Discoveries of a Blue Space Ranger

by candyfloss_and_soy_milk



Series: Dumb One Shots [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Coming Out, Flustered Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), I’m weak, JuLance Challenge 2018, Keith (Voltron) Flirts, Keith and Lance are dorks and that’s canon, Lance (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Post-Season/Series 06, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 10:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candyfloss_and_soy_milk/pseuds/candyfloss_and_soy_milk
Summary: On their way home, Lance makes a discovery about himself after bonding with the real Shiro.





	Discoveries of a Blue Space Ranger

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this with the intention of finishing my post-season five duology fic, but with Lance’s birthday being today and with it being Lance-centric, I figured why not?
> 
> Also I kind of suck at kissing scenes bc I’m working with zero life experience, so I apologise in advance

Of all the things Lance has seen in space, he just wants to go home at this point. He’s been close to death more times than he’d like, actually died and been brought back, briefly experienced the life of a medieval furry, attacked by a haunted castle, became friends with a cow, been smooched by a mermaid, all the while fighting an interstellar war with people he’d consider to be his closest friends. Frankly, it was exhausting. Even his friends were getting to him. He really could have done without getting the shit ripped out of him because of his crush on Allura - all he wanted was a little comforting from his Garrison buddies, but hey it’s whatever - getting Keith back only to lose both him and Shiro almost immediately, but then they came back again, and then there’s the whole Allura and Lotor thing which ended up with the dude going crazy in the space between realities.

 

He just wants a vacation. It was too much. Especially the past week.

 

Luckily for him, they needed to go back to Earth, to work on the Castle-ship 2.0.

 

That means he’s finally going to see his family again. And he figured after this much time in space, he’d surely be allowed at the very least a long weekend catching up with his loved ones.

 

Getting there, however, is not going to be a picnic. They have to stop every day for food rations, bathroom breaks, sleep breaks and a month into the voyage they’re not even a quarter of the way back. Yeah, the lions were fast, especially Red, but oh my god was space big. The human mind cannot comprehend just how large space is, because infinity is a concept with which humanity cannot fathom.

 

Hey, it was slow going, but they were getting there.

 

“UGH I can’t take it anymore.” Pidge yelled into the comms, startling Lance. “We really took the teledauv for granted because we are getting nowhere just using our lions.”

 

“Pidge, calm down.” Keith, ever the levelheaded person now he’s got two years - two goddamn years - on Lance, tried to be reasonable. “It’s not like we have much choice.”

 

“Hey, here’s a thought.” Hunk piped up, “what ever happened to the giant teledauv we built in our first attempt at taking on Zarkon? Like I know Lotor got a hold of one of the pieces but that was just one bit, right? Where’s the rest of it? Helplessly floating in space?”

 

Lance thought for a second, “he has a point. What happened to that?”

 

“Oh right.” Allura started, sounding suspicious.

 

“What?” Keith said, voice stern.

 

“Coran and I, might have misplaced the larger teledauv.”

 

“What?!” The whole team chorused.

 

“Oh my god I die for like 6 months and you guys lose a teledauv, kill Zarkon, and at some point Coran vored an eel.”

 

“Shiro-“ Keith tried to cut in.

 

“What? It’s my death, I’m allowed to make self-deprecating jokes about it.”

 

Lance was crying with laughter, “aw dude, I didn’t have you pegged to have that sense of humour.”

 

“Still,” Keith continued, “it’s still a sore point for us.”

 

Shiro just sighed.

 

“Couldn’t we contact Olkarion to see if they got a hold of the remains of the teledauv?” Hunk brought the conversation back around.

 

“Yeah they helped build the thing surely they’d like put a tracking device or some kind of fail-safe command in it.” Lance suggested and was greeted by an uncomfortable silence. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

 

“No, Lance, you might have a point there.” Keith said, and Lance couldn’t help but feel a little proud of himself for the first time in a while. “Coran, is there anyway of checking in with the Olkari to see if what Lance suggested is, like, a thing or not?”

 

“I can try, but this far out in space I don’t know that the message would arrive all that quickly.”

 

There was another beat of silence.

 

“Coran.”

 

“Yes, princess?”

 

“We’re in the blue lion.” Another period of silence. “We can use the sonic ray?”

 

“Ah yes! Good plan, Allura. Spending so much time in the lions really has ruggled my wimble.”

 

“Gross, Coran. We don’t want to hear about your wimble.” Pidge said, making Hunk giggle.

 

“Ah Princess?” Lance said, “don’t you think we’re still a bit far out for the ray to work?”

 

“I suppose, but with what I learned of Altean Alchemy, I’m sure I could boost the signal a bit.”

 

“Whatever works. Whatever will get us home quickest.” Keith said, sounding just as tired as the rest of them.

 

They pulled up to a stop on a large asteroid, so the Alteans could get to work sending a message to Olkarion, with Krolia offering her hand in assisting them. The rest of the team left the lions to stretch their legs a bit. Despite Keith’s nagging, Shiro came out as well. Hunk and Pidge quickly paired off and started talking dumb nerd stuff - Lance didn’t even know why he bothered being jealous at this point, it’s not like he’d get it anyway - Keith gave his cosmic wolf a walk around the asteroid and Shiro watched a nearby star. Lance hadn’t really gotten to know Romelle yet, and she was the only one not otherwise preoccupied, so Lance approached with a signature smirk of his on.

 

“How much does a polar bear weigh?”

 

“Excuse me?” She said, tilting her head in confusion.

 

“Wait, never mind. You wouldn’t get it. Let me start again.” He stuck out his hand for the Altean to shake, “hey, my name’s Lance. I’m not sure we’ve been properly introduced.”

 

She tentatively shook his hand, her grip firm and intimidating. He really should come to expect that Alteans are much stronger than humans. Especially after seeing Allura yeet Lotor across the bridge of the Castle-ship. “Romelle. Nice to properly meet you.” She tilted her head again. “What is a ‘polar bear’?” She asked.

 

Lance laughed lightheartedly, “it’s like a bear, but it lives exclusively in the North Pole of Earth; they like icy planes ‘n junk.”

 

“That seems horribly inefficient. Why would they live somewhere so desolate?”

 

Lance blinked. “I don’t...know. Evolution is weird.”

 

“Yes, I am keenly aware.” She looked either side of his face and he rolled his eyes realising what she’s looking at.

 

“You think my ears are weird, right?”

 

“Well they are odd looking. And I imagine your hearing is very poor in comparison to that of Alteans and even the Galra.”

 

“What is it with aliens and human ears, they work perfectly fine for me.”

 

Romelle chuckled, “you are endearing. I rather like you.”

 

Lance swallowed. “I don’t know what the others have told you, but I’m not as much of a ... flirt anymore.” He paused. “I’m not looking to flirt with you either.” He then panicked. “N-not that you’re not worthy of flirting with, I’m just- I’m-“

 

“Not interested in me? Yeah, that’s fair. I’m not interested in you either.”

 

“Oh.” Lance didn’t quite know how to respond. It’s not something he’s never heard before, he’s been rejected plenty, but no one has ever been that blunt about it.

 

“If I’m honest, I miss my girlfriend back in the refugee camp. I can’t stop hoping she is okay.”

 

Another thing Lance wasn’t sure to respond to. He understood the missing someone you care about part, but he didn’t expect Romelle to be so flippant about her sexuality. “Your girlfriend?”

 

“Yeah. I kind of left without saying goodbye, as well.”

 

“Aw man,” he put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. “I know how that feels. I never got to say goodbye to my mum, my grandma, or my brothers and sister. But I’m sure, like my family, your girlfriend hasn’t lost hope and still thinks of you everyday too.”

 

She sighed, “I hope so.” Romelle cleared her throat, presumably to push back the tears that were threatening to spill. “Thank you, Lance.”

 

“No problem.”

 

They stood quite awkwardly for a few seconds, before, “I’m going to see if I can help Princess Allura. Thank you, again. You’re a sweet boy, Lance.” And she walked away with a smile.

 

Sighing, he realised he was alone again.

 

Frustratedly, he kicked a loose stone, and just because the universe seems to be out to get him recently, it went careening toward the ledge Shiro was sitting on. It ended up hitting the Black’s former pilot gently on the back, but Lance still felt embarrassed and like he’d hurt him.

 

Shiro turned around and raised an eyebrow, eyes scanning for the source of the projectile. His eyes landed on the accidental perpetrator and before he could open his mouth, Lance rushed over and knelt by Shiro’s side.

 

“Shit- I’m so sorry, Shiro, did that hurt? Are you-“

 

“Lance, I’m fine,” he said, his tone was tired, but not without affection for his teammate. “I wish everyone would stop fussing over me.”

 

“We’re not fussing.” Lance sat properly beside Shiro and looked out into space with him. “We just got you back- for real this time.”

 

“I know, but I’m not made of China.” He huffed a laugh to himself and muttered, “I’m made of Japan, though.”

 

Lance laughed, properly for the first time in a while. “Oh man, have you always been this funny?”

 

“Yeah, of course. I never wanted to let you know about it...before. With all the war shit going on.”

 

“To maintain the serious leader visage?”

 

A low chuckle, “yeah I guess.” He sighed. “It’s dumb now, why hide it? I want to be able to laugh with my friends as much as I can.”

 

There was a beat of silence. Lance was taken aback a little. “I’m your... friend?”

 

“Yeah, man, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” There was a note of concern in Shiro’s voice, undeniably turning on Space Dad mode.

 

Lance sighed. “I dunno. While you were gone and Keith was with the Blade, I kind of felt... I felt more like a seventh - or fifth if we’re talking lions - wheel.”

 

“More like?”

 

“Yeah because you know, everyone has their thing and I’m just a goofball, right?”

 

The silence that followed unsettled Lance. He was very close to accepting his suspicions as truth at this point; they’ve been travelling non-stop for the past month and not only does it feel like they’re not even slightly closer to home, but he still feels even more lonely. His only consolation was that at least he had Kaltenecker to talk to in Red.

 

“Well that’s a load of bollocks.”

 

Lance was taken aback, “What?”

 

“You do have a thing, many in fact. You’re our sharpshooter, you’re very caring and affectionate and supportive. Not to mention that being funny is also a ‘thing.’ There’s no shame in that.” Shiro wrapped his arm around Lance’s shoulder. “What’s up with you lately? You seem super bummed out, did something happen?”

 

A sigh; “a few somethings. I feel bad that I couldn’t help you sooner-“

 

“That’s not your fault.”

 

He nodded, “I guess, but I can’t stop myself from feeling bad.” Shiro raised an eyebrow at him, “I don’t really want to talk about the rest.”

 

“That’s okay. I’m here if you need to.”

 

“Thanks Shiro.” He paused. “I didn’t realise it, but we all really missed you. Subconsciously, y’know. I guess the other you wasn’t the same as the you that we knew.”

 

He sighed, “I was still around you guys though. I watched through Black, remember?”

 

Then, something occurred to Lance, and despite the affection he had for his leader and friend, he felt his pulse raising. “Hold on, if that’s the case, while we were all trying to make a connection with Black, why would you only accept Keith?”

 

The older man raised an eyebrow, “well that wasn’t all me, you know.”

 

“But still partially.” Lance folded his arms.

 

Shiro then shocked Lance by laughing.

 

“What? What’s so funny?”

 

“Sometimes, you and Keith are really similar.” His expression was fond, brotherly even. “Stubborn, impulsive, you both care so much about stuff you’re passionate about -almost to the point where it’s self-destructive-” Lance scowled; Shiro huffed a laugh, “but, you’re also both great leaders and I would trust you both with my life.”

 

Lance’s frown deepened. “If that’s what you think, then why did you and Black not let me in, and let Keith in instead?”

 

“Aw, buddy. It’s not like that.” Shiro rubbed a comforting circle on Lance’s back, and it reminded Lance of his older brother Marco to the point where he felt a lump forming in his throat and his eyes sting. “It was what was best for you. You guys work so well when you’re in Black and Red. You keep my little brother in check when he goes too HAM. Besides, you can still hold a leadership role even in Red, and you do it so well. It wouldn’t surprise me if you end up in Black at some point.”

 

Lance was touched by what Shiro was saying, but still scoffed, not quite believing the other guy’s words. “Yeah and how long is that gonna take?”

 

“C’mon man, you know that’s not the point.” Shiro paused. “You’re destined for greatness, you know that. Allura told me about your bayard upgrade. You’d be the first paladin ever to unlock three bayard forms so early into being a paladin. I imagine you’d also be the first to pilot three lions in your time being a paladin too.”

 

That was the last straw. He could no longer hide it behind sarcastic coughs and moody pouts. Lance choked out a sob and rested his head on Shiro’s shoulder. Neither of them said anything, Shiro just wrapped his arm around the crying Blue Paladin and made soothing sounds to calm him. They stayed like that until Lance had calmed down a little more and Hunk was calling them over for a divide of rations to keep them going. Lance stood first, but Shiro stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

 

“You know, Lance, I’m here for you. Whatever you need to talk about. I’m here. I haven’t known you as long, but I see you just as much my little brother as I do Keith.” He offered a reassuring smile, “come to me about anything, okay?”

 

Lance wiped a stray tear and nodded.

 

 

 

~

 

 

 

The paladins not working to send a message to Olkarion ate a little before checking in on the progress. Allura soon emerged and informed them that they had indeed managed to come in contact with the Olkari, and they’d arranged a meeting place not far from their current coordinates to deliver the now modified and significantly smaller teledauv - and apparently also Matt Holt, who had found out they were safe and wanted to come back to Earth with them, and Lance didn’t blame him. The teledauv was almost finished, it just needed some of Allura’s alchemy before they could get cracking and head to Earth, which seemed so close it was hard to believe. They were already on their way home, but now it seemed almost possible to make it before Earth becomes a target for the Galra.

 

Lance didn’t want to think about it, but he had considered the possibility of Earth already being in the Galra’s radar. After all, Krolia had been sent, and there was that one cruiser from all those months ago when they’d first left Earth. So it isn’t outside the realms of possibility that there is an attack waiting for them. He just hoped his darkest fears weren’t true.

 

They had planned to leave in the next few hours, so they could have a bit more time to relax before they left, so some of the group headed to take a nap. Lance had wanted to as well, but as soon as he put his head down inside Red’s passenger compartment, his mind wouldn’t shut up. He tried the other bench, but that was once again, unsuccessful. He tried the pilot’s seat, but Red tried to communicate with him, eager to get moving again, which Lance was frankly too tired to deal with. Sometimes, Red really was a handful, like a hyperactive puppy, raring to go as soon as the word ‘walkies’ was even mentioned in passing. Lance loved his lion, and dogs too, but god, he just wanted a rest. Even if they had spent the past month sat on their collective asses flying through empty space, barely making a dent into their journey back to the Milky Way, he still felt exhausted. The feeling was reminiscent of family road trips around the Southern States for vacation and the uncomfortable closeness of spending all day everyday with your family, only in this case it was a cow. He loved Kaltenecker dearly, but she wasn’t half invasive sometimes, and he knew he didn’t smell great sometimes, but damn, he forgot how bad farms smelled in his time in space. Speaking of, the cow herself was being particularly nosy and needy while Lance was wandering his lion trying to find the perfect place to nap. He almost lost it before resigning himself to a walk outside to calm his restlessness.

 

Stepping outside his lion, he saw that he wasn’t the only one not currently passed out in a lion. Shiro and Keith were talking, with the space wolf nuzzling Keith’s leg, begging for attention.

 

He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, honest, but he just couldn’t help it. Shiro was his idol (and apparently friend too, which made him a little giddy to think about) and Keith was, well… Lance didn’t really know.

 

For the longest time, Keith was just that guy everyone envied in the Garrison: his perfect scores in everything from written exams, to the test simulations. He, alike a lot of his classmates, just saw another competitor, someone to aspire to be like. Then Lance saw Keith punch that asshole James in the face and he shamefully began to admire Keith. In a family as close knit as his, he could sympathise with Keith’s anger at that asshole hitting a nerve when it came to Keith’s family. But also, Lance had never seen an act so ballsy in the Garrison. The space school was nothing more than a glorified military school which sent their graduates to space eventually, so any act that wasn’t to follow orders was almost unheard of. Witnessing it too, made Lance want to be that cool too.

 

Then as they got older, Lance got better and the admiration twisted into jealousy, and he projected the negative emotions into hating Keith, making him into a rival of sorts.

 

Up until his idol and hero goes missing in space, presumed dead, and Keith goes MIA after getting kicked out. In the months between Keith leaving and seeing Keith in the Garrison hospital rescuing Shiro, Lance did worry about Keith. The guy lost his one guardian, and with his mother not on the scene, he had no one to look after him. He imagined Keith was very lonely.

 

Voltron then happened, and, well, Lance began to see him as a friend. Playfully chiding him into inane competitions and teasing the hell out of him, but a friend nonetheless. They grew closer after Shiro’s second disappearance and Lance was broken when Keith wanted to leave the team. He couldn’t really explain why he wanted Keith back so badly, because that was an entirely separate feeling to his loneliness. Him being excluded by everyone else and Shiro’s weird Haggar-controlled-clone-y behaviour was one thing, missing Keith like he missed a vital organ was another.

 

So of all the things he expected to overhear, the topic of him was not on the list.

 

“You should talk to him, Lance really isn’t okay.”

 

“Don’t you think I haven’t noticed?” Keith sounded annoyed, not really with anyone but himself, “I want to talk to him, god I do, but I just can’t.”

 

“Why not?” Shiro was sounding annoyed too, “what’s stopping you?”

 

Keith scoffed, “You sound like me, back when you were stressing about Adam.”

 

“So you admit, it is like that-”

 

“No, it’s not the same, because Adam liked you back. I don’t have a chance.”

 

“Who’s to say you don’t too?” Shiro said, “you two are so similar to me and Adam when we were your age-“

 

“But you two didn’t have to deal with an intergalactic war.” Keith huffed, “there’s no time to even think about my own stupid feelings when the Galra empire is as torn and messy as it is, the Castle of Lions is gone and we are making the worst time on our way back to Earth to even stand a chance at fixing this universe.”

 

“Of course there’s time,” the older brother was starting to sound exasperated, “especially considering he’s your right hand in this and if the two of you are out of sync, that means no Voltron, and as a result, the coalition doesn’t have the universe’s most powerful weapon on its defence.”

 

Keith was silent a moment.

 

“Keith,” Shiro put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, “believe me when I say that when you find someone as important to you as Adam is to me, you shouldn’t let him slip through your fingers the way I did.” He bobbed his head in shame, “I was selfish, I didn’t think about how he was feeling and I am so scared that when we get back home, he’ll stick to his word and not be there when we return.”

 

“Shiro-“

 

“Don’t make the same mistake I did. But you’re an adult now, I trust you’ll make the right decision.” And with that, Shiro walked away, into the green lion and didn’t look back.

 

Lance watched as Keith kicked a rock out of frustration, and he winced when Black’s pilot growled when it bounced off the edge of the asteroid.

 

He hadn’t understood most of what they were talking about - who the heck was Adam and apparently Shiro and Adam’s dynamic was the same as his and Keith’s? - but he got the general gist that it would be best for Keith to talk to Lance about... something. He shrugged to himself about it before walking down to greet Keith.

 

“Hey buddy,” Keith whipped around, shocked to see Lance standing there, “you doing okay?”

 

He righted himself and cleared his throat. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” He avoided eye contact, “did you by any chance, see or hear anything?”

 

Lance shrugged, “dunno what you’re talking about, but I’m tired, wanna hang for a bit?” He said, sitting down. He patted a spot next to him and Keith took a moment before he sat down too.

 

They sat in silence for a bit, neither attempting to speak, in case breaking the silence would make the atmosphere awkward in any way. But eventually, the sound of silence accompanied by the space wolf’s curious sniffing was becoming a tad unbearable to Lance, and apparently also to Keith, because when Lance spoke, Keith did too.

 

“So-“ Lance started.

 

“I wanted to-“ Keith said at the same time.

 

They laughed awkwardly, before Lance said, “you wanted to what?”

 

Keith broke eye contact again before saying: “I wanted to say how, um, well you’ve been doing in Red. Like helping me out as my right hand, keeping me in check, that stuff. Thank you.”

 

“Oh.” Lance wasn’t particularly surprised, because that’s what Shiro had been talking about with himself not that long ago, but he was surprised to hear it from Keith. “No prob, I guess. Just part of the job.”

 

Keith just nodded in response, but looked like he had more to say. Lance didn’t press though, he didn’t want to step into unwanted territory.

 

Instead, he started up a conversation about nothing, just talking about random space trivia from the planets they’d visited. Lance had a lot of spare time to do some reading about planets he found interesting and that the castle had records of. They talked pleasantly about that for a little while, a happy distraction from the thoughts that plagued their subconscious’s. It was nice, just talking to Keith. And eventually when the two of them ran out of steam, they fell into another silence, comfortable this time; Lance finding the wolf’s intermittent sniffing and Keith’s steady breathing oddly comforting to listen to. So much so, he lay back on the dirt and looked up at space like he was stargazing back home on Earth.

 

He felt Keith’s eyes on him, but again he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he focussed his eyes on the stars, trying to make his own constellations for this small section of space.

 

It surprised him when Keith spoke up: “I kind of missed you, y’know?”

 

“Yeah?” Lance propped his head up to maintain eye contact. He hadn’t noticed before but Keith actually had purplish eyes, rather than the blackish brown he had thought before. He supposed it was his Galra heritage, but he did admit it was a pretty colour.

 

“Yeah I did.” He half smiled down at Lance. “There was no one at the Blades with your dumb sense of humour. Neither on the giant space whale I lived on for two years.”

 

Lance sniggered. “That’s because I’m so unique, nothing could possibly compare to my charms.”

 

Keith blushed a little (now that was something for Lance to overanalyse when he was alone later), “you say that like your sense of humour is even good.”

 

“Oh it so is. I even managed to make your mum laugh like last week or something.”

 

“Did you really?” Keith raised an eyebrow, “are you sure she wasn’t just laughing at you? She hasn’t had much contact with humans, so probably just saw you the way people see silly little penguins at a zoo.”

 

Lance gasped dramatically and put a hand over his heart, “Keith Kogane, that was savage. I am wounded at your hurtful words.”

 

“There’s more where that came from.”

 

“I doubt it, you may have come back more buff and grizzled, but there’s no way you could have gotten more sassy while being away.”

 

Keith paused. “So I’m buff as well as grizzled, huh?”

 

“Oh shut up,” Lance was blushing now, “not the point of that.”

 

The other boy laughed (it was more of a giggle, but he didn’t want to admit that something that cute came out of Keith’s mouth) and it was contagious enough that Lance chuckled too.

 

Keith then lay on his back too, the wolf coming up and curling into his side for a cuddle. The sound of steady breathing came back and Lance was content, at least for a little while. When he was laying watching alien constellations with Keith, he didn’t have to think about his feelings of inadequacy, regret or whatever confusing and conflicting things came about from thinking ‘I’m stargazing with Keith.’ He didn’t have to think about the ongoing conflict with warring factions of the Galra; he didn’t have to think about the impending doom his home-planet faced; he didn’t have to think about the heartbreak he was yet to recover from because he was trying to comfort Allura, instead of letting himself wallow in self pity; he didn’t have to think about anything. He could just relax beside a friend and his dog and worry about nothing.

 

That was until they were back in their lions not long later. But the big things weren’t what Lance was worried about. He was worried about his feelings.

 

He knew he liked Allura. He knew he liked girls, so why was he all of a sudden seeing Keith’s eyes as pretty? Or his laugh as cute? And why did he spend so much time thinking about Keith? Not just recently, but as long as he’s been aware of the mullet boy, he’d been omnipresent in his subconscious. But why?

 

Sure, he was rebellious and stood out when they were preteens for standing up for his family. And sure, he enjoyed the rivalry the two had as they were teenagers, both in the Garrison and the early days of Voltron. And sure, he really came to care for Keith’s well-being after Shiro, well, died. He wanted to support Keith, be as cool and rebellious as him and wanted to muck about with Keith in their downtime like they used to.

 

No big deal, right?

 

It was all perfectly normal behaviour and thoughts for one heterosexual guy to have toward his friend with an unspecified sexuality.

 

Now that he thought about it, Lance didn’t really see Keith being particularly interested in girls. Not in the way Lance was anyway... or even Hunk, to be honest. Hunk seemed to be more of a softie, wanting to protect powerful women like Shay while she protected him. But Keith wasn’t like that. Lance wasn’t even sure he’d ever seen Keith flirt. Like at all.

 

Maybe he just wasn’t into anybody? Lance thought, but that couldn’t be right, not with the way he was talking about his feelings with Shiro earlier.

 

But they had been talking about Lance at the time, surely they weren’t talking about Keith’s feelings toward Lance being like that...

 

Right?

 

 

 

~

 

 

 

After spending the entire trip to the rendezvouz point with the Olkari stewing in his own head about Keith, Lance needed to talk to someone. He needed to vent to someone who wouldn’t judge - that ruled out Hunk and Pidge. He needed to talk to someone mature and level-headed - that ruled out Coran, because as much as he liked the gorgeous man, he wasn’t all that focussed lately, not after they lost the Castle of Lions. He needed to talk to someone about Keith - that ruled out Krolia... and Keith.

 

That left only a handful of people: Allura, Romelle and Shiro. Only one of the three seemed to be suitable for the job, and he’d said the day before that he could come to him about anything.

 

So after breakfast, while the techies and mechanical nerds were off with the Olkari, hooking the teledauv up with Altean magic, Lance approached Shiro.

 

“Hey Shiro.” He was tentative when approaching the elder, as it wasn’t a particularly comfortable topic of conversation he was about to initiate.

 

“Oh hey Lance. You okay? Excited to go home?”

 

Lance scoffed, but it was entirely forced. “Duh, this is me you’re talking to. Of course I’m excited to go home.”

 

Shiro raised an eyebrow, “then why do you look like you’re shitting your pants right this second.”

 

Lance looked up at the man with self-pity. “Because I just might be.”

 

“What’s up?” He ushered for Lance to follow him a short distance away for some privacy.

 

The planet they’d agreed to meet on was like a small Olkari, apparently one of their peaceful colonies made long before the Galra’s expansion. It was no bigger than Earth’s moon, but was rich with vegetation and bug life. The plants were of jarring colours though; the grass underfoot was a purplish blue, that glowed almost luminous when the planet’s sun shone on it, and the trees had dark pink drunks and the leaves looked like slices of processed cheese. Just looking around the planet must be what it’s like to take hallucinogenic drugs.

 

Shiro settled down underneath one of the nearby trees, far enough away that the construction crew wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation. Lance sat down beside him and found the words to say.

 

“I’m kind of very confused right now.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About certain... feelings I may be having? Is that weird? To not know how I feel?”

 

Shiro chuckled, “nope, that’s normal. Fuck, if I knew how I was feeling half the time I wouldn’t make death jokes about my own literal death all the time.”

 

“True, true.” Lance smiled despite the swirling storm inside. (Great, now he had let it go stuck in his head, just what he needed.)

 

“But yeah, you’re good. Totally normal not to know.” Shiro paused. “Anything in particular got you confused?”

 

“Not so much a thing, more like a person.”

 

“Ah.” Shiro nodded, slowly beginning to understand. Lance hoped he would get it without giving too much away, but that seemed unlikely. “Is this person, by any chance, a boy?”

 

Lance buried his face in his hands. “Yes.” He sighed. “That’s kind of why I’m confused.”

 

“Because he’s a guy?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“Do you... like him?”

 

“Maybe? Kind of? I don’t know.”

 

“Want to elaborate on that a little? I can’t do much to help if I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours.” Shiro poked his head gently.

 

Lance rubbed his face with frustration. “Okay so. This guy. I’ve kind of realised I think about him a lot? In various ways? Like I used to find him annoying, and cool, and impressive. Now, I find myself worrying about him and I even missed him a lot. Like *a lot* a lot. Like someone pinned me to a table and ripped out a lung or something. Which makes sense because yesterday, he kind of took my breath away, a little. And even when I was younger, I found myself wanting him to see the best side of me possible and I still do? I guess? Like I want him to be as impressed with me as I am with him.” He spared a glance at Shiro, who’s face was unreadable. “Does any of that make sense?”

 

Shiro swallowed. “Yeah. It makes sense.” He cleared his throat, “in fact, it sounds like something I heard yesterday from someone else.”

 

Lance was almost scared to ask who, so he didn’t. He stayed silent.

 

Shiro studied his face and he couldn’t help but feel like a frog in a lab, being prepped to be dissected. “Y’know yesterday when I said you and Keith are really similar, I didn’t realise it was quite like this.” The other guy must have noticed Lance’s intake of breath at the word beginning with a K, because Shiro put his hand on Lance’s shoulder and squeezed.

 

“I was speaking to Keith yesterday, and he pointed out a similarity between him and me. I’m starting to see a similarity between you and someone I know back home.”

 

Lance let it slip before he could stop it: “Adam?”

 

Shiro sighed, “you eavesdropped?” He shook his head with a smile on his face, “teenagers.” He looked back up at Lance again, “but yes, Adam. He was actually my fiancé.”

 

Lance felt the blood quickly leave his face. So what he’d overheard was a talk about romantic feelings. That must mean something quite terrifying to Lance. He daren’t even think of the possibility. The thought had crossed his mind while thinking in solitude, but it just didn’t make sense, Lance was straight, right? He liked girls, so why would he have thoughts - especially romantic ones - about a guy?

 

“After we started dating, we talked a lot about how we came to be dating, and Adam even told me he struggled to come to terms with his sexual orientation because of me. He’d previously been attracted to women, but I was apparently a spanner in the works. I totally threw him off his straight train.” Shiro squeezed Lance’s shoulder again. “He took so long to tell me because he had trouble accepting the truth as what it was. He said that it could have taken a lot less time if he could talk to his best friend about it, but with his best friend being me, he couldn’t and kept it all bottled up.” Shiro’s gaze hardened after a brief pause. “Sound familiar, by any chance?”

 

Lance was bright red and ready to burst, and burst he did. “But I just don’t get it? How can I find Keith so cute and how are his eyes so pretty and why do I care so much about him if I’ve only ever liked girls in the past? Heck, I’m not even entirely sure I’m 100% over Allura and I apparently want to make out with Keith under the stars? It doesn’t make any sense!”

 

“Ever heard of bisexual? Or pansexual? Or omnisexual? They’re all things that can explain that.” Shiro had a pitying smile on his face, “it’s entirely possible for you to like both guys and girls. Adam does too.”

 

Lance stopped breathing for a second.

 

Shiro nudged him. “Hello? Space to Lance? We alive in there?”

 

It... it made so much sense now. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. It’s not that Lance was unaware that he could be anything other than straight, it was just a little harder to comprehend. There’s obviously nothing wrong if he does like guys and girls, but thinking that and knowing that about himself are vastly different things. All he needed was a nudge from his idol and hero and everything just clicked into place.

 

He exhaled before he got too lightheaded and spewed the words as soon as he reopened his lungs, “oh my god Shiro, I think I might be bi.”

 

“You think?” His hero chuckled. “Well done buddy, I know that was hard.”

 

Then something blindingly obvious hit him around the face.

 

“Wait, Shiro. You were engaged to a guy!”

 

“Yeah? I thought we’d been over this?”

 

“Shiro!!” Lance put his hands on the other man’s shoulders and shook him lightly. “You like boys too!!”

 

“Yes!! Exclusively!!” Lance knew Shiro’s tone was sarcastic but he didn’t care. He was just so excited about the news.

 

“Oh my god, you’re gay!!” A wide grin spread across Lance’s face. “You’re gay and you helped me realise I’m bi! You’re the best, I love you bro!” He planted a loud kiss on the top of Shiro’s head. “Thank you so much! I’m gonna go tell everyone I’m bi! Thank you for everything!”

 

He stood up a little too quickly, so it took him a second before he could charge off in the direction of the building site. Wind whipped the hair wildly out of his face; he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and ears and throat. He felt like he could do anything.

 

 

 

He didn’t hear, but Shiro smiled softly in his direction. “You’re welcome, Lance. I’m proud of you.”

 

 

 

~

 

 

 

Lance jogged to a stop when he reached the construction site, heart still pounding like he was at a concert in the front row, breath still heaving like he was seconds away from passing out. He may have been actually, so he took this moment to calm down a little.

 

He scanned the area for people to excitedly tell when his eyes landed on Hunk carrying a box of supplies. It had been a little while since he last got to spend some time with his best friend, just the two of them, so he seized the opportunity and made his way toward the Yellow Paladin. “Hunk! Hey buddy!”

 

His friend followed the sound of Lance’s voice and smiled when he saw him approaching. “Hey man, where you been? You doing okay?” His smile slowly fell, only because he was a little startled at the sheer size of the grin on Lance’s face. He startled again when Lance took the box from Hunk and placed it on the floor, before pulling him into a tight hug. Hunk did his usual of immediately rubbing a comforting circle on Lance’s back.“Woah, alright, we’re hugging now. Are you okay?”

 

“I am grand, Hunk. I’m so over the moon you wouldn’t believe.” Lance squeezed his eyes shut as he said: “Hunk, I’m bi.”

 

The circling hand paused. Hunk pulled back, face serious. “Dude. Are you kidding me?”

 

“Nope. I’m a full on bisexual disaster.” Lance’s face began to ache from the smile but it didn’t matter.

 

It took a moment, but Hunk’s face quickly changed to match Lance’s. “Congratulations buddy!” He recaptured Lance into a hug, lifting him off the floor.

 

“Thank you, Hunk.” Lance giggled.

 

“Awh, Lance. Thank you for telling me.” He put him down, but didn’t break contact. “I’ve been a little worried about you lately.”

 

Lance’s smile fell to a half smile, “how so?”

 

“Well, the more I worked with Pidge, the less time I got to spend with my bro. I was beginning to miss you.” Hunk started to sniffle, “and I know you’ve been spending more time alone, which isn’t fair. I’m your best friend, I should’ve been there for you. And I wasn’t.” A fat tear slid down his friends cheek. “I’m so sorry, Lance.”

 

Lance’s lip was quivering too. “Awh Hunk, you’re making me cry too.” He pulled Hunk in for the third hug and said through his own fat tears: “I forgive you, because damn if I didn’t miss you too.” Hunk squeezed tighter. “I just didn’t want to get in your way.”

 

“You could never-”

 

He was cut off by a gremlin’s yell. “Oi! Drama queens! We still need those parts!”

 

The two friends pulled apart and wiped their tears with their sleeves. “Ok, back to work.” Hunk picked up the box, “hey, come with. You can tell everyone else your big news that way. If you want, that is.”

 

Lance blew his nose in a tissue (he was thankful for snatching several handfuls before the castle exploded, his allergies still acted up because of the dust in Red and alien pollen, that and he supposed he was a crying mess lately) and nodded. “Yeah I want to. Let’s go.”

 

As they reached Pidge, she was flipping through papers on a clip board and looked up when she saw the duo. “Ah my second favourite meme lord. Waddup, dude? Oh Hunk could you just put that over there? Thanks.”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Sweet.” She turned back to her paperwork. “Lance, you okay?”

 

He found it significantly harder to tell Pidge his news. Not because he didn’t like her, because he did, they were friends, she was just- she was a teaser. No matter what he had to say, she undoubtedly would come up with some way to make him feel embarrassed. But that wasn’t going to happen. His epiphany was that important to him, he wasn’t gonna let a little gremlin’s teasing ruin it for him.

 

“Lance?” She cocked an eyebrow as Hunk approached, “what’d you do break him or something?”

 

“Pidge.” His voice was stern.

 

“Yes?”

 

“I am-“ He paused for dramatic effect “-bisexual.”

 

She nodded in approval. “Solid. ‘Gratz.”

 

And that was probably the best he was gonna get at the minute. So he thought fuck it, I’m in a hugging mood, before sweeping the short girl into a hug, “thank you, Pidgey-pidge.”

 

Hunk was laughing in the background, and the hug victim was trying to suppress giggles of her own, while trying to fight Lance’s right grip, but Lance wasn’t gonna let go that easily. “Okay okay, I always knew you were a hugger. You can have 10 more seconds of hug, then I need to get back to work.”

 

“Good enough for me.”

 

The seconds passed and he released the little demon. She brushed off the wrinkles on her clothes and started to yell at some Olkari working nearby, “ALRIGHT NOTHING TO SEE HERE BACK TO WORK, YA LAZY BASTARDS!” Lance chuckled, and turned to walk away before, “hey Lance?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thanks. It’s good to know you figured yourself out.” She flicked her eyes away quickly, almost showing a sign of vulnerability before adding, “I’m actually ace, so, yeah.”

 

“Awesome.” Lance’s aching grin was back, “I’m proud of you, Pidgey.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, “now back to work you lazy bastard.”

 

She just laughed before returning to her business.

 

He didn’t expect a heartfelt apology like he got from Hunk, but her returning the favour and coming out to him in return showed solidarity between the two. It was enough and he supposed he could forgive her past teasing, because life is too short to get hung up on it. And he didn’t want to waste time being salty when he could be spending that time running around, telling his friends about his news, feeling lighter than he ever had before.

 

 

 

 

~

 

 

 

Telling the Alteans was slightly different, because he had to explain what he meant by ‘bisexual,’ only to then find out the entire Altean species is bi by default, so it sort of lost its magic. He did appreciate the hugs though. Hugs are always nice. After that, he found himself telling Krolia, despite not really having spoken to her before. She didn’t have to be told just what he meant, but she didn’t quite know how to respond. But that was fine, they weren’t that close; he appreciated her listening, regardless. He soon found Matt and told him shortly after, and his brother-in-meme high fives him and made an obscure vine reference he hadn’t heard in a long time. He ended up walking away and laughing, like he normally would with the guy.

 

That left one person with Team Voltron he had yet to tell, and he felt slightly nauseous at the thought.

 

Shiro had hinted that the feelings weren’t necessarily unreciprocated, but the doubt was enough to make him nervous. He spotted Keith from a distance - because apparently he now had some sort of Keith-o-meter to tell him exactly where he was at any given time of day - and swallowed. Fear of rejection be damned, he was gonna go over there and tell him. He made a promise to himself to tell everyone he cared about his news, and Keith was the top of that list. So he sucked it up and marched over.

 

Keith was moving some boxes from the construction area, all apparently empty because the job seemed to be drawing to a close. Black’s pilot looked up as Lance approached and had to do a double take, almost as if to check that it was him he was walking toward. He put down an empty box he was holding and waved timidly. “Hey.”

 

“Keith, I have some news.”

 

He blinked at Lance. “Okay?”

 

Lance looked around and saw some Olkari engineers milling about, and he didn’t particularly want an audience, should he fuck up monumentally. With that in mind, he grabbed Keith’s wrist and started pulling him toward the line of trees. Shiro had apparently made his way back to the Lions in the time it took Lance to do his rounds, so the same spot with which he had his epiphany is where he took Keith. The sun was shining through the cheese coloured leaves and cast pretty geometric patterns across Keith’s face as they plopped onto the floor. The sight almost made Lance lose his nerve, but he toughed it out. Luckily for him, Keith waited patiently for what Lance had to say.

 

“I have had an epiphany.”

 

Keith raised an eyebrow, “is that so?”

 

“It is indeed.” He playfully snapped his fingers, which made the other boy giggle (god he would be the death of him some day). “Now, I know what you must be thinking-“

 

“That your fly is unzipped?”

 

Lance’s face flushed red so quickly he felt vaguely like he may pass out; he quickly fumbled with his jeans only to find out that it wasn’t, in fact, unzipped. He looked back up to see Keith erupt with laughter. “Made you look.”

 

He chuckled too -because fuck if his laughter wasn’t infectious- but indulged himself in watching the euphoria from his own joke swept its way through Keith. “Whoever said you’d matured on that space whale was sorely wrong.” He’d said, taking no notice of the warm blush adorning his cheeks as he spoke.

 

“Sorry,” Keith’s laughter was dying down, “you were just so serious, it was live bait.” He cleared his throat. “Okay. Carry on. Epiphany. Do enlighten me.”

 

“Well,” Lance also cleared his throat. “I spoke to Shiro and he helped me realise something. About myself.” Keith tilted his head in confusion, his expression so adorable Lance felt he may burst if he didn’t look away. “And it took a lot for me to realise, after years of confusing feelings and it honestly felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders when Shiro nudged me in the right direction.” He chanced a look back at Keith, who was a rabbit in headlights, eyes rounded, cheeks flushed. “I’ve told everyone, even your mum, because I wanted to save you for last.”

 

“Just spit it out, McClain.” Keith wasn’t aggressive, just impatient, it seemed.

 

“Okay. So, I’m-”

 

“GUYS!” An ear splitting screech made its way across the clearing and made the two paladins wince. Pidge was jumping up and down with excitement. “THE TELEDAUV IS READY TO GO! LET’S GO HOME, BITCHES!”

 

Lance sighed, “well okay, let’s go.”

 

He moved to stand up, but Keith caught his hand - not his wrist but his hand, and Lance had to hope and pray the warmth he felt on his cheeks didn’t show. “You didn’t finish.”

 

“Keith, we need to go.”

 

“You didn’t finish, Lance.” He eyeballed him. Deadly serious for the first time in a while. Lance had gotten so used to the goofy, playful, confident Keith that he’d forgotten he had a cool serious side too. “They can’t go anywhere without the two leading paladins, so they can wait for us.” Keith tugged lightly at Lance’s hand to sit back down; Lance did as he was told. “Now finish your damn sentence.” He said with a slight smirk.

 

Lance tried to clear his throat, but his voice was still ragged. “O-okay. Well um-“ he tried to channel the confidence he had earlier, but his voice just came out as a hushed squeak. “I’m bisexual.”

 

“You’re what?”

 

“I’m bisexual.” He said a little louder.

 

“I can’t hear you, could you repeat it again please?” Lance ignored the smirk on Keith’s face.

 

“I said I’m bisexual, you asshole!” Lance shouted, “are you happy now, douchebag?” He shoved Keith’s shoulder, but when he saw the other boy laughing, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

 

“Yeah, I am. I’m happy for you, welcome to the club.” Keith patted Lance’s shoulder. “Now come on, we’re going home.” He stood up and walked toward the construction site, while Lance sat still, a little shell shocked at what just happened. Then something Keith said hit him.

 

“Wait- what do you mean welcome to the club? Keith? Keith!” He got up and started running after the Black paladin, who started running himself, laughing like a maniac.

 

 

 

~

 

 

 

All now in armour and in their lions, the paladins were ready to go home. The Olkari and Allura had managed to channel the princess’s quintessence through Blue to power the teledauv which can be activated from the ground. They wouldn’t be able to bring the teledauv with, unfortunately, but Pidge had managed to extend the range of the communicators inside the lions, having looked at how Blue’s sonic ray worked, and the one trip should have enough of Allura’s residual quintessence to make the jump back. (Lance guessed she used the same method of reverse engineering the way she had developed cloaking for Voltron having studied the invisible maze all those months ago.)

 

After being without the castle for a month, the awe of seeing a wormhole open up was renewed. The shape had changed slightly with modifications made having lost one of the pieces to the Galra, but the Altean patterns were still a beauty to behold.

 

Not only that but the thought that just on the other side of that wormhole was his home brought tears to his eye. He couldn’t wipe it smoothly with his visor down, but there was no one but the cow to see, so he let the tears flow. He would soon see his family, his home, his beach, his sea... it was all so much. After losing the home he’d lived in while away from home, and suffering a great deal with his found-family, it seemed about time that they would finally - finally - make it home. He’d tried to not be too optimistic about the free time they’d get once they landed, but he couldn’t help imagine showing his friends around Varadero, hugging his mum, getting playfully teased by his siblings, reuniting with old Garrison buddies.

 

They needed to make contact with the Garrison first though. Voltron and the coalition needed the Garrison on their side; Sam Holt had the plans for Castle 2.0 anyway, so two birds, one stone.

 

“Alright, are we ready?” Keith asked.

 

The team, now anxious to get home, made varying noises of agreement. “Ready as we’ll ever be, I guess.” Lance spoke for the team; if anyone noticed he spoke thickly with tears, no one said anything.

 

“Okay then, let’s go.”

 

The wormhole was as trippy to fly through as ever, but when they exited, a collective sigh of content sounded over the comms. Familiar shaped continents, vast blue oceans and the polar ice caps was a sight for very sore, homesick eyes. Another wave of tears hit Lance, but he smiled and laughed with the hysterics. He was home, finally.

 

A request for a private channel on the comms popped up on Lance’s dash, which confused him a little, they rarely used the private channels. But whatever, no big deal, right?

 

Wrong. He opened it and immediately begins to panic at the question he was asked. “Lance, you sound like you’re crying. Are you okay?” Keith sounded concerned, which would’ve made him feel a little flustered, but the fact that he’d heard, meant the others had too.

 

“Shit-“ he tried to dry his face as quickly as possible, but there wasn’t much time until they touched down in the Arizona desert. “How could you tell?”

 

“I know what crying sounds like.” Lance pictured him rolling his eyes. It didn’t help.

 

“Do you think the others noticed too?”

 

“Probably,” great. Just what he needed. Some teasing. Even after they’d cleared the air. But his train of thought was halted by: “But then again, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were as emotional as you right now.” The tone of his voice changed to his signature Keith snark, “besides they probably had the brains to know to turn their comms off to cry.”

 

Keith’s comment succeeded and made Lance laugh, and did clear his conscience slightly. Hunk was just as homesick as he, and Pidge hadn’t thought about her mum since running away to the Garrison. If Lance knew her as well as he thought, she’d be devastated by her own behaviour having only realised to think about Colleen now. The poor woman lost her husband and son in space in one fell swoop and then not long after, her daughter goes haywire and runs away, only to then get lost in space as well. Lance felt for the woman, he really did. At least his mum had people to comfort her, to feel that shared pain with.

 

As they landed, a fair distance from the Garrison just for the safe keeping of the Lions, Lance went to close the private channel, before pausing. Keith didn’t have to check in on him. But he did. The least he could do was thank him.

 

“Hey Keith?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thanks. For, y’know, checking in on me.”

 

A pause. “No problem. Birds of a feather, right?”

 

Lance cocked his head. There was Keith, saying they’re the same again. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

 

“Dude, what do you mean?”

 

“Well we’re both queer. So.” He said like it was obvious.

 

And it should have been. It really should. But Lance is oblivious. Like he was with Pidge and with Shiro. So he freaked out. “YOU’RE WHAT?!” But the channel had been closed, and Lance could see Black lowering her head.

 

He needed answers and he needed them right then and there. So, he stood and charged for the exit, passing by a confused looking Kaltenecker. He patted her head and silently promised to take her to a field by his home in Cuba before charging out the Lion’s maw. Red lowering her head felt slower than ever and Lance willed her to move faster. But because she’s stubborn, she actually slowed down, making Lance grunt loudly in frustration.

 

“Come ON, Red. This is a matter of potentially finding romance and if you don’t hurry up, that pretty purple-eyed boy will slip out my gasp AGAIN!”

 

She gently made contact with the ground and Lance figured it shouldn’t be too dangerous to leap from that height, and as a result only really suffered a milt jolt upon landing on the hard baked desert ground. He looked around and saw the other paladins and their passengers exiting their respective lions. When his eyes fell on a shaggy black mullet, Lance quite literally saw red and charged.

 

“Keith!” Lance called out, grinding to a halt in front of the black paladin. He was hugging and puffing as he saw the feigned innocence on Keith’s face. It made him even more frustrated.

 

“Yes, Lance?” He had the nerve to flutter his eyelashes.

 

Lance took a deep breath to calm himself. He closed his eyes and brought his hands together as if he was praying. “What, pray, do you mean you’re queer too?” As he asked he pointed his joined hands accusingly at the other boy.

 

Who. SMIRKED.

 

“Oh didn’t you know?” Keith tilted his head and fluttered his eyelashes some more. “I’m gay, Lance.” For a flourish, Keith winked.

 

Where this confidence came from, and why it had to manifest while Lance was currently processing a LOT internally, he didn’t know. Perhaps it was the universe spiting him for taking this long to realise that about himself. Maybe he was a serial killer in a past life. The options were plentiful.

 

“No, I didn’t know! How could I know?!”

 

Keith pouted and Lance genuinely wondered if the other boy had ever been a drama kid, because this acting was certainly something. “You were really happy when you found out Shiro is gay. Why are you not happy to find out that I am too?”

 

“You know that’s not it, you ass.” Keith couldn’t keep up the act (perhaps that’s why he’s not a drama kid: he can’t stay in character). “Why are you only telling me now?”

 

He shrugged, “I dunno. Maybe I thought it would get you to move a bit quicker.” Lance felt his face spontaneously combust. “I mean, it did seem like you were hiding more than just your sexuality.” He swallowed as Keith took a step into Lance’s personal space. “If you have something else to say, feel free to tell me.”

 

Lance knew what he was talking about, and he really wanted to know how Keith figured it out. He huffed.

 

“Okay fine, I’ll tell you, just-“ he spotted that the others were making their way over. Panic ensued. He made eye contact and started shaking his head at Hunk and making cutting motions across his throat. The other boy blinked for a second, before halting the rest of the group. He watched them all turn to Hunk in confusion and then promptly start walking in the opposite direction. Thank god for Hunk. All apart from Shiro, who looked over at both him and Keith, who had his arms folded facing away from his brother, waiting expectantly. The older brother looked between them and winked at Lance while giving a thumbs up.

 

As a result, Lance face palmed, causing Keith to follow his line of sight, but by the time he turned, Shiro had rushed to join the rest of the group. Keith turned back with a concerned furrowed brow. “You okay?”

 

Lance cleared his throat, “Yeah, it’s just- um- difficult to get out.”

 

“It’s okay, take your time. We could talk about something else.” Keith gave him a half smile, and a pang went through Lance at just how cute he is. “Why don’t you tell me about your family?”

 

At that, Lance lit up. “Well, as you could probably imagine, my family is quite lively.”

 

“No! I would have never guessed.” Keith’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

 

“I know, one would assume that this-“ Lance gestured to himself, “-is a one of a kind personality trait. But no. There’s a whole clan of us.”

 

“I dread to think.” Keith was grinning.

 

“My mum is amazing. She’s not your stereotypical Latina mum, like my abuela is. My mum is actually the quietest in the house. She’d be sat at the dinner table with everyone else screeching at each other and laughing while my mum is sat there with a coffee and a soft smile on her face.” A similar soft smile adorned Lance’s face. “My brothers are polar opposites from each other; Luis is a huge nerd and was the reason why I’ve seen every Star Wars movie and read every Percy Jackson book, while Marco has told me on multiple occasions what drugs he would be ok with me doing and what ones I should avoid.” Keith laughed at that, “while Veronica is the one I’m probably closest to? I guess? Like I love my brothers but V is 2 years older than me and we spent more time together growing up. She got me into face masks and we would talk about girls together when we did them. She would get me to paint her stubby little nails, while she did my toes; I would be lying if I said that I didn’t come into space with bright pink toenails.” Lance sighed, “see then there’s my dad. He’s kind of a pain, oblivious and stuck in his own head all the time, but I still miss his lame jokes.”

 

“I miss my dad too, but I’m glad to at least have my mum.” Keith sounded somber. “I know what it feels like to be away from your family, but I could never imagine what it’s like to miss so many people you care about.”

 

Lance didn’t know what to say; there was no stronger pain than losing a member of the family and nothing can soften the pain. Although, being around people could help... “you know, if you wanted to, you could come to Cuba with me? My abuela always says ‘the more, the merrier.’”

 

“Oh no, I couldn’t impose-“

 

“You wouldn’t be. You could come as my guest.”

 

Keith froze, “what?”

 

And that’s when Lance realised what he’d said, and felt the blood rushing to his face.

 

“Like as a date?” Keith asked.

 

And that was what effectively killed Lance. The fact that Keith assumed it would be romantically - it was but still.

 

“I mean, only if you’d want to, I guess. If- if not, then you could still come. We have room, and my mum makes enough garlic knots to feed the whole of the Caribbean, and my sister would definitely want to try out black nail polish on you, and you’re literally Nico di Angelo in real life so Luis is not gonna leave you alone. Marco is pretty chill with everyone so he’d probably just like you because you’re cool and-“

 

Lance was silenced by a hand on his shoulder. “I’d love to meet your family. If they’re anything like you, I’m sure I’ll love them.”

 

“Wait- what do you mean by that?” Honestly, at this point he was just confused. Keith didn’t flirt. Like ever. And yeah he’s gay but that doesn’t mean he likes me, Lance thought. Best not to assume, right?

 

A scoff. “Really? I thought I was being kind of obvious.”

 

Lance just shrugged. “Enlighten me.”

 

“Lance, I like you. Have done for a while. Probably since the Garrison, but I didn’t even know your name back then. You were just an adorable, abrasive little peanut. Then, you burst in to save Shiro just as I’m doing it and, damn you didn’t just grow up, it was a glow up.” Keith folded his arms, as though thoroughly exhausted with having to be so blunt with him. “And then there was the whole rivalry stuff you put on and I was just an insecure teenager so what was I supposed to do other than play along. Two years with no one but my mum and Yorak on a space whale with nothing to do but train and think, I did a lot of growing up. I realised I should probably not be beating around the bush so much. Even if you did end up being straight, I figured it would be better to just clear the air than to keep it all bottled up.” The hand on Lance’s shoulder drifted up to twirl a lock of hair between two fingers; Lance swallowed thickly. “But if you didn’t end up being straight, I figured what the hell, there’s no harm in seeing if maybe there could be something there.” Where Keith had previously been eyeing the desert floor, he finally looked up and it felt like Keith could see right into Lance’s soul. The deep purple was so captivating, it felt like a trip through a wormhole. “Could there be?”

 

There were so many ways to answer Keith’s question: he could play it cool and say something suave like ‘there might just be’ and wink, he could kiss Keith right then and there, because the way he’s looking at him and after that long speech, Lance didn’t think the gesture would be too abnormal.

 

But what Lance actually did was much more lame.

 

“Well- I guess- if you wanted to that is-“ You know that vine of the audience of people face palming? Yeah that played out in Lance’s head as soon as he stuttered out that pathetic response. In fact, he even slapped his own forehead for effect. Keith giggled at that.

 

“Is that a yes?”

 

“Yes! Yes it is. Yes yes yes.” Lance pulled Keith into a tight hug, and tried not to pay attention to Keith’s hands now both tangled in his hair. “I like you too by the way. I don’t know how long per se but I like you. A lot.”

 

“Gay.”

 

“Yeah, I know.” Lance pulled back to look Keith in the eye. “You drive me insane. Like the rivalry shit I guess was just me being bad at processing feelings so I just wanted to show off to you all the time. And I couldn’t explain it, but when Shiro went missing and you first took over as the black paladin, I really wanted to support you and help you through it. And I missed you so much when you left. I had a big Keith shaped void in me and I couldn’t wait to see you again.” Keith’s smile was gooey and soft, “I don’t know why I didn’t realise it earlier.”

 

Keith shook his head, “it doesn’t matter now. We’re home, I like you, you like me. We have the team back together and the coalition has teamed up with the Garrison. I don’t think we’ve ever been stronger, you know? If Sendak comes knocking, he won’t stand a chance.”

 

Lance laughed, “yeah, suck it, Sendak! We have the power of friendship and gay romance!”

 

Keith laughed too and Lance could get used to hearing it this often.

 

“Ok, are you gays done?” Pidge shouted to them, “we gotta get moving now.”

 

“Shut up, Pidge, five more minutes!” Lance whined.

 

“Fine, but I’ll count!”

 

Keith was laughing, but Lance sighed. “I guess we better get moving.”

 

“Nah I have one more thing before we go.”

 

“Oh yeah and what is that?”

 

Keith’s answer came in the form of him tugging at Lance’s hair gently, pulling him into a kiss. It was cheesy to admit, but fireworks burst behind Lance’s eyelids. They both smiled into it, pleased to have finally gotten here, but it didn’t stay chaste for long. Keith apparently was a nibbler, catching Lance’s lip between his teeth at one point, and he didn’t except to like it as much as he did.

 

But unfortunately, Pidge apparently did count, as she began pelting the two of them with small rocks from the desert floor. Luckily, they were in their armour because Pidge had an arm on her and the rocks could have hurt a lot more than they did.

 

So, the two begrudgingly pulled apart, but not all the way. They walked to join the others hand-in-hand. And Lance was absolutely positive he wouldn’t let go even if Pidge did continue to assault them with stones.


End file.
